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I had a wonderful time volunteering at Alemany Farm. The farm is a fairly short walk from my house. I learned about crops that would be best to plant at this time of year in my backyard garden. Although the weather had been quite cold and rainy, the sun peeked through the clouds for much of the afternoon and we had no rain that day, so volunteering there was quite pleasant. The regular volunteers are experienced gardeners and provided lots of good advice.

I started with lots of weeding, including removing some weeds the size of small trees!

One benefit of volunteering is that you get to bring home some of the produce that you harvest. We harvested some Yacón root, as well as kale, lettuce, and brussel sprouts.

I took a cutting of some yarrow and this plant with beautiful red flowers on the right side of this photo.

With the help of my friend Francis and the great folks at the SF Public Utilities Commission greywater pilot program, I’ve installed a greywater system to take water exiting from my laundry machine for use in the backyard. It requires using an environmentally safe laundry detergent, but is otherwise really easy to use and saves lots of water (lower bills, good for the environment).

Once a month, there is a free day at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, so I took the opportunity to invite a friend, enjoy the flowers and the amazing building, as well as taking some photographs.

I saw one of these critters around midnight on my next-to-next-door neighbors fence bordering the community garden steps where I often walk home.

A Virginia opossum is not a usual site around here… at first I thought it must have been a raccoon, a cat, or a rat, but its face kind of glowed in the dark almost like an owl and its long snout and tail were a giveaway.